Hey all. I bought Family Tree Maker 16 about 6 months ago but couldn't load it on my old computer. Since I got a new computer I loaded it today. What do i do now? Does anyone else have it? I am trying to make time for the tutorials, but until then....what do I need to know? I have boat loads of information in ancestry.com. Do I need to manually load that stuff into FTTM or is there a way to merge? What else do I need to know? HELP!

Ancestry is a challenging system to get information out of automatically.

Put in or transfer your old information (use the GEDCOM format to do the transfer ... it is the format that all software likes).

Look online for the ability to download GEDCOMs and then merge them into your FT file, if you are absolutely sure of the information. You can open and explore the GEDCOM without merging it into your family file.

I was able to do this by opening up ancestry while my FTM was also open and on ancestry doing download gedcom. Then on FTM there is a way to import a gedcom. Now, I don't know if I did this right or wrong. It imported my data but not any attached documents or pictures. I believe, but I can be wrong, that you need to scan in or import those documents or pictures independently. BTW, if you google family tree maker, there is a help forum that is linked to their official web page.

Bob, when I get my new computer and have to install FTM in it, I am going to transfer the data as a gedcom saved to a USB drive (which I have as a backup), but how do I get the images to the new computer? I have quite a few pictures that I scanned into the program.

BTW, Biff, I just peeked on ancestry's community for reviews of FTM 2008, some are scathing.

Cathy, I like it a lot for family group sheets and doing various versions of trees. I am not a sophisticated user of it though. I would like to try the book function, but it seems complicated. In ancestry it seems like you just press a button and voila, there is a book automatically generated. I would be interested to hear from others who have done more complicated functions with it.

FTM 2008 is now available for sale and will be shipping shortly --- I just received an email offering it for sale for $39.99 from genealogy.com.

I was offered the ability to download a "beta version" but it was a gigantic file and I was concerned that it might trash my existing settings for FTM 2006.

I have also used PAF for Palm which I download onto a PDA which I bring to the FHC when extracting records --- much easier than lugging a laptop or paper records to use for verification of data. I use a gedcom file and active sync to transfer --- you need to also use regular PAF as part of the transfer process to output the data in PAF for Palm readable format.

The software and instructions are available online at the FHC download site. Last time I checked it was not available for MS Windows Mobile.

Bob, when I get my new computer and have to install FTM in it, I am going to transfer the data as a gedcom saved to a USB drive (which I have as a backup), but how do I get the images to the new computer? I have quite a few pictures that I scanned into the program.

You scanned the images into what program? Which one will make a difference ... quite simply you need to export them in some manner, whether it is one at a time or as a large block, you need to get them as seperate images on the drive in a folder.

Then transfer them over to the new computer.

I would recomment NOT installing them into the FTM file ... for one, the file gets to be large very quicly and if it gets corrupted, you can lose everything in one shot.

What I have done is create a folder for each last name and then store the images by Last First Middle (using maiden name for women) ... allowing the system to sort things properly.

How does evryone like this software? I have been considering buying it but am not sure if it is that much better than the free LDS software I currently use. Does it have better features?

As to the 2008 version, I cannot say ... if the reviews are that bad, go to a computer software reseller in your area and buy the last old version when it goes on sale (since the new one is coming out).

I love both the FTM and LDS versions ... the FTM is more flexible in some areas, but they are both competent, professional packages that will work for you quite well.

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